Ivy City residents sue over proposed bus depot

WASHINGTON – It’s not every day a judge holds a proceeding out on the street. But that’s what happened Monday when a judge wanted to see for herself why some Northeast D.C. residents are suing the District.

The situation started when D.C. planned to place a tour bus depot in Ivy City, the D.C. neighborhood just off New York Avenue.

More than 60 tour buses at a time park at Union Station each day, but plans to renovate meant they needed a new place to park. D.C. planned to put them on the lot of what used to be the Crummell School, across the street from Love Nightclub.

But some in the neighborhood say Ivy City has become a dumping ground for the District because of its low-income residents – and they took the plan to court. So D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Macaluso, her clerk and attorneys from both sides toured the proposed site.

Jeanette Carter and others who live in Ivy City point to strip clubs, homeless shelters and the new depot as examples of things that wouldn’t be tolerated in more affluent neighborhoods.

“Any time the government wants to put something industrial someplace, they put it here in Ivy City,” Carter says.

Carter says she wants her children to have the same opportunities as Northwest D.C. residents.

“People have lived here forever, and they’ve just been dumping on them because they’re low-income,” says Johnny Barnes, the lawyer representing the Ivy City neighbors.